People Are
Stories-in-Progress

As a head’s up, this online version of People Are Stories-in-Progress is more than 44,000 words long. That’s as long as some novels. 

There are some typos and errors in these web pages, which I’ve corrected in the eBook. I will eventually correct those errors here in the online version as well, but since there’s other stuff I’m excited to make, I’m not rushing that process. My goal is to complete this online update by September 2023. This banner will disappear when this page has been revised. 

(Please note: I didn’t make any major changes in the updated eBook—I only refined the wording slightly, so you’re still getting a very similar experience between the two versions.)

Story Structure Applied

Seeing the Structure in the Story

So, as I said, my friend lost her job. She called and told me what happened, and I said, “Great! You hated that job.”

As soon as she told me, my mind immediately filled in the entire story structure of her finding a new job. To be more specific, this was what was running through my head:

  • Great! You were fired! (That’s just the catalyst!)

  • You have left behind the old, icky job (backstory).

  • There will be some conflict, probably some job interviews (murky middle),

  • but eventually, in a thrilling shift (climax), you’ll be hired for a new job!

  • And with that job, you’ll have a life better suited to you (resolution) and you’ll know more about what job suits you best (new understanding of self). 

I know that this sounds like I was thinking a lot, but it takes longer to explain than it actually took to think it. It was also not exactly what my friend needed.

Honestly, sometimes I still hear what others deem as terrible news, and my initial reaction is still: Oooo, another catalyst! We’re headed to a better story!

I just learned not to say it—at least, not immediately.

Point-of-View (POV)

As I mentioned before, my friend and I were both looking at the same story but from different angles.

My friend was still in shock over the catalyst and daunted over the uncertainty of the murky middle. I was ready to celebrate a brand-new, better-suited job with her.

Neither of these perspectives are wrong exactly. You actually need both to get a full understanding of the situation. That doesn’t mean that my reaction was at the time, because what my friend really needed in that moment was to be witnessed where she was in the story. In other words, I could have expressed a little more sympathy. Instead, our phone conversation became a story in and of itself.

In fact, if you apply some story structure to our phone conversation, it would look something like this:

  • Backstory: My friend loses her job, which she hates.

  • Catalyst: My friend calls to tell me.

  • Murky Middle: During our conversation, I am less sympathetic than she expected.

  • Significant Shift: My friend lets me know that my response didn’t feel good to her, and I realize that: a) my reaction is odd and unwelcome, and b) my friend needs sympathy.

  • Resolution & New Understanding of Self: I express sympathy, and I begin to wonder why I reacted that way.

Now, keep in mind, of course, that I’m telling the story from my point of view or perspective.

The point of view (POV) or perspective is an individual’s understanding of an experience or an event. Another POV on the same event may look a bit different or a lot different, depending on how similar or different the two individuals’ outlooks are.

In this case, some of the story would look the same from my friend’s point of view (left), but other parts would look slightly different (right).

To be specific, after summoning the courage to tell me that my reaction didn’t feel good to her, my friend might have decided that I might not be the best person to call right after she got bad news (significant shift). She never did call me again about losing a job like she did that day, but don’t worry—we remained friends (resolution).

Part of the Larger Story Structure

Either way, our phone conversation becomes part of the larger story structure that I imagined. That event becomes part of the murky middle between my friend losing her job and finding a new one.

In other words, like a job interview, it’s one more event on the way to my friend finding a new job, just a bump in the road to the story’s resolution.

Remember: this is one example of how story structure can be applied. I’m breaking down something simple and explaining in detail so that the pattern becomes clearer. Once you see the pattern, you can apply the story structure to other narratives—fictional and otherwise.

I’ve also applied this same story structure to:

Now, we’ve got the terms of a story structure. We understand its pattern.

But where are we going with this? Where does the story move to?